


Something Like a Masterpiece

by Hllangel



Category: One Direction (Band), Radio 1 RPF
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-25
Updated: 2014-08-25
Packaged: 2018-02-14 17:29:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2200629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hllangel/pseuds/Hllangel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Louis injures himself on stage at the end of the WWA tour.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Something Like a Masterpiece

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fiarra](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fiarra/gifts).



> This is a big congratulations to Fiarra, who just got her masters today! She asked for Louis with a non-life threatening injury, and this is the result. Very fluffy, for all that it starts out with Louis cracking his rib. 
> 
> Thank you to Turntlou for beta/britpick. 
> 
> Title from Little Mix's "Nothing feels like you" 
> 
> This is a work of fiction based on the lives and likenesses of real people. If you are one of them and you're seeing this, I'm so so sorry and please turn around.

Louis knows as soon as he gets his breath back that something is very very wrong. They're in the middle of a song, though, so there's not much he can do about it except grit his teeth and try to hit his notes. Liam notices first, because he's good like that, and also because he'd been right there. But when Louis tries to use Liam's hand to pull himself up, he's hit with the worst pain he's ever felt, and he's forced to stay on the ground. Liam sits next to him. 

"Tommo?" 

Louis is splitting his focus between breathing very shallowly and following the song so he can hit his own parts, and doesn't respond until Niall's talking and holding the attention of the stadium. 

"Louis, what's wrong?" Liam is very close now, and Zayn's coming over too. 

"Help me up," Louis says. "I just need to stand up and maybe I can make it through." 

"What?" Zayn asks, hovering close now. It's hard to hear each other over the roar of the crowd, but it's not hard to guess what Zayn is asking. 

"I'll deal with it later," Louis grits out. It's one thing to leave the stage for a wee; if he goes now, he's not coming back out, and they're almost to What Makes You Beautiful, and then there's just the encore. He can do this. He _can_. 

He makes it through, but barely, and only because Liam hovers right next to him on the ramp, completely ignoring their basic blocking to be nearby. Everyone's probably noticed that he's not moving the way he should be, and he's afraid to check the trending topics on twitter. 

Liam is gingerly holding him under his arms and gently steering him towards Paul once they're completely finished, and only lets go long enough to let the sound guys take his in-ears and mic. 

"I think he needs to go to hospital," Liam says. Louis can't really speak anymore. Now that they're finished and the adrenaline rush is tapering off, the dull throb in his side is magnifying into something horrible and crippling and he can barely move. "I'll go too." 

Louis shakes his head, or at least tries, because he only manages to move about a quarter of an inch before he's crying out because it fucking _hurts_. "Stay with Sophia," he rasps out. "She's not here to sit in an empty hotel room." 

"But --" 

Louis glares as much as he can, and he can feel Liam slump down a bit. "Take Zayn, then." 

He doesn't argue with that, and lets Liam help him limp out to one of the cars while Paul talks to someone on his phone about privacy and making sure that they're not followed. 

Zayn keeps a gentle hand on the back of Louis' neck all the way there, and once they've pulled up at the service entrance out back, he doesn't need to do more walking than getting out of the van because there's a wheelchair waiting for him. He sinks down carefully. 

"Can you tell us what happened?" one of the nurses asks. 

"He fell," Zayn jumps in. "I didn't see it, but that was a few hours ago." 

"Hit my side. Hurts to move and breathe." Louis confirms. He feels so small, sitting in the chair with everyone standing around him. It's late, so the corridors are mostly empty, but even if they weren't he'd probably be shielded from sight, which is nice. He hates the way people watch them all the time, especially when he feels like he's been run over. 

They lead him straight into an x-ray and Paul fills out the paperwork while gentle hands help him from the chair to the table and position him. It's awkward and his side aches, since they've turned him to lie directly on it, but they've let Zayn stay and hold his hand. Louis tries not to break his fingers, too. 

Once it's over, and they've given him something for the pain -- Louis doesn't ask what it is, just swallows the pills easily -- the world starts to go fuzzy around the edges. It's getting close to midnight, and all he wants to do is sleep. Through the haze of the painkillers he hears the doctor tell Paul that he's broken his rib, and that he's not to do anything more strenuous than walk between his bed and the toilet for a while. 

"The shows," he says to Zayn once they're back in the van. 

Zayn is stroking his hair, and it feels nice. He's got the best fingers, really. "Hush. We'll figure it out." 

~*~

Louis wakes up alone at their hotel, surrounded by enough pillows to have come from at least a dozen beds. It's soft, though, so he's not going to complain, except for the part where he has to move. The ache in his side is throbbing along to his heartbeat, which is faster than it should be for having just woken up and even moving his arm to brush hair out of his face is torture. He groans, because he can't help it. 

"You're awake," comes Niall's voice from the sofa by the window. A minute later he's within Louis' field of view, sitting down gently at the edge of the bed. "How are you feeling?" 

"Everything hurts," Louis says. There's no use trying to hide from the other lads, they all know each other too well. "And I have to piss." 

Niall starts clearing away the pillows. "Let me help you up." 

It's awkward and painful but at the end of a minute Louis is standing. Niall hovers around, but Louis finds that he can still walk on his own, if rather stiffly. "You're not following me into the toilet, Niall." He's lucky it's Niall and not Liam in here right now, because Liam would absolutely follow him in. 

Louis' first priority is the toilet, but after that he scrubs some water over his face and gets a good look at himself in the mirror. On the surface he doesn't look too different, but there are bags under his eyes and he thinks maybe he's a bit more pale than normal. There's nothing to do about it, though, so he washes his hands and goes back outside where Niall's got a few plates on the table, as well as a little bottle of pills. 

"Directions say take with food," Niall says, pointing at the bottle. "Haz ordered you some fruit but I got you a breakfast burrito too." 

"Where is everyone?" Louis asks. He looks warily at the sofa, wondering how bad it's going to be to sit down. 

Niall seems to get what the problem is, and he goes to get an armful of pillows from the bed, arranging them before he braces his arms around Louis' back to help him down. Bending his ribs hurts, and he's breathing hard by the time he's settled, but once he's there he's decided that he's not moving for the rest of the day. Niall hands him his painkillers and the burrito. 

"Zayn's still asleep. He stayed here most of the night until I kicked him out. Haz and Liam are at the pool. Everyone will be back for lunch so we can have a meeting about what to do for the last two shows." 

"I'm performing," Louis says around a mouthful of burrito. Fuck he's hungry. Hasn't eaten since before the show. 

Niall hands over the pill bottle. "Take one." Louis does, and then goes back to his burrito. "Your phone's been exploding, by the way. Who've you just put in your phone as the smiling pile of shit?" 

Louis blushes and looks away. He knows who that one is, and he'll answer the texts soon, if not Niall's question. But he should probably reassure his mum first, so when Niall hands over his phone Louis calls her. He's getting a bit fuzzy again, as the pills kick in, but it's not as bad as it was last night, so he's at least able to carry on a mostly decent conversation with her, before pulling up his texts to let Stan know that he's still mostly in one piece.

Then he opens Nick's messages. There's roughly one hundred in there, ranging from lighthearted, _heard you fell on stage last night. Isn't that Hazza's job?_ , to a bit more concerned, _Are you really hurt? Papers say you were in hospital._ and finally a simple, _please call? I'm worried._

He can't call, not with Niall here, and the other boys due back soon, so he sends a quick text instead. _Fell on stage, broke a rib. Am alive. Can't talk, lads are here. x._ He debates the last part of it, but it's not like he can give him more at the moment. The lads know that Louis likes men, but they don't really know about this particular one. Louis had been planning to tell them eventually, but not yet. Not until after Spain next week, when they get a chance to actually sort themselves out. 

Spain. That's another thing he's going to have to deal with. Hopefully he can still make the trip work. He's been looking forward to it for ages now. 

By the time Harry and Liam come back, still dripping from the pool, Louis is about as comfortable as he can be, half lying on a stack of pillows, while Niall hovers around and makes sure everything he needs is within reach. Harry sits down on the floor and leans his dripping wet head against Louis' thigh.

"You're getting me all wet," Louis complains, but Harry just lifts his head far enough to shake out his hair, spilling drops of water everywhere before turning to grin up at Louis, and then go right back to where he was before. 

"You haven't eaten any fruit," Harry pouts. 

Louis ignores him, and Zayn shuffles in a minute later, blinking heavily. 

"Band meeting, then," Liam says. 

"I'm singing." Louis is trying to head off the vote, since he's the one who got hurt. Besides, they've covered for Harry when he couldn't sing, and for Liam when he couldn't walk, so there's no question that he's going out on stage tomorrow night. 

"Can you, though?" Liam asks. Louis opens his mouth to argue that if he can talk, he can sing, but Liam cuts him off. "Can you get enough breath?" 

Louis deflates a little bit because Liam is probably right. He tries taking a breath deep enough to sing, and ends up with watery eyes because it hurts too much. 

"I have to be on stage," Louis argues. He's not sure why, though. He can't really sing and he can't really move around to interact with the audience or the lads, so there's no point. 

"Of course you do," Zayn says. "We just need to figure out how to cover for you so you don't get hurt more." 

He tunes out of the discussion after that. They can solve the problem, and it's too complex for him like this anyway. His phone vibrates where it's sitting on his thigh, and Louis covers the screen with his hand, to be sure no one sees it, but doesn't look right away. He'll tell them eventually, when there's something to tell. 

~*~ 

He must have fallen asleep after that because when he wakes up, Harry's sitting next to him on the sofa, wearing a soft t-shirt and shorts, and his hair is completely dry. So is Louis' mouth. 

"How long have I been asleep?" His fingers tighten on his phone, which he finds isn't there, even though he's sure he was holding it when he drifted off. "Where's -- " 

Harry hands it to him, and Louis clicks the button to see what the most recent messages are. From Nick, of course. "You fell asleep about two hours ago I think." Harry looks at the phone, but Louis isn't going to answer that quite yet. Nick may be Harry's friend, but this isn't his business yet. 

"What's the plan for tomorrow?" 

"We've divided up your parts, though you can join in if you feel up to it. And you get Liam's bench all to yourself." 

Louis hates sitting still during the shows, but there's nothing for it, really. His phone buzzes again. 

"You going to get that?" 

Harry just seems curious, so Louis shrugs it off. "Later."

They're supposed to be travelling today, but Harry tells him that Paul's rearranged the schedule to give him a day before they have to move. Hours on the bus just sounds exhausting right now. And it turns out he was right about Liam wanting to follow him into the toilet. He only relents when he needs to shower and there's no way he can wash his own hair. 

Everyone seems to have moved into Louis' room for the day. Zayn brings up his bag from the bus so that Louis can change into fresh clothes. Niall brings his guitar in, and sits in the opposite side of the sofa, feet in Harry's lap and plays snatches of songs, calling it a warm up. Liam's taken over Harry's original spot on the floor, and jumps up every time Louis so much as twitches. 

~*~ 

The travel is as awful as Louis had anticipated, and he spends it doped up with painkillers, on the softest sofa the bus offers, trying not to move too much every time the bus hits a bump in the road. He's sure the ride wasn't so rough before. 

At performance time, Caroline has to help him into his shirt and jeans, and tie his shoes for him. Zayn makes sure his sound equipment is turned on and strapped properly, and Liam hooks an arm under his elbow as they walk out, making sure he's settled on the bench before jogging down to meet everyone else on the runway.

It's one thing to be performing in a stadium when you can move around the huge stage, but it's really difficult when he's stuck in one place. He feels even smaller than usual, when he can't move around, so about halfway through he gets Liam to help him up. 

"I can walk, Payno. Just slowly." 

Liam doesn't look like he believes him, but there's not really time or space to argue on stage, so he helps him up, and Louis slowly makes his way to the centre of the runway, where Niall is supposedly teaching Harry to play guitar, with Harry's long arms roped around him. He mangles three chords by the time Louis gets there, and they turn to focus on him. 

The rest of the show goes as normally as it can, with Louis hobbling around and barely singing. 

In the end, they decide to eat back at the hotel, in Louis' room, on his bed, while he's blocked in by twelve dozen pillows. It's very soft, though, and he falls asleep easily, once he's taken his meds. 

~*~ 

The next few days are pretty much the same. It's the last show of the tour though, and there's supposed to be a party. Well, there still is a party, but Louis ends up sitting in a corner outside for most of it, with the lads bringing him drinks and food so he doesn't have to move much. 

"What are you doing with the time off then?" Liam asks. They generally don't talk about what their plans are between work commitments, and they've got a longer break now that the tour's over. 

"Meeting someone in Spain," Louis says, before he thinks too much about it. The painkillers mixed with the few drinks he's had aren't doing his mental clarity any favours. The hot South Beach night is shimmering and fuzzy. "For the rest of the week at least. Then back to Donny to see mum and the kids." 

"Why didn't you tell us you were seeing someone? Is it the smiley poo guy?" 

Louis turns to squint at Liam. "Who?" 

"Niall told me. Said you'd been texting someone." 

"Yeah, he'll be there at the end of the week. Can't come down before Friday. He's got a proper job and all that." 

"Is it serious?" 

"Don't know yet," Louis says truthfully. "That's sort of what we're trying to figure out." 

"Is he nice?" 

Louis thinks about the last time he saw Nick, the night before he left for Toronto. Nick had botched cooking dinner and ended up ordering them a pizza, which they'd eaten with Louis half sitting on Nick in his living room. They'd barely avoided getting red sauce stains on the sofa when Nick had tipped him over to press him into the cushions and kiss him breathless. That was the night they'd decided to go to Spain. "Yeah," Louis says. 

Liam seems to be satisfied with his the answers, so Louis asks him about his plans, and Liam launches into the details of the two week trip he's taking Sophia on. 

~*~ 

Turns out, everyone's got concrete plans except for Harry, which is how Harry ends up tagging along to the villa Louis' rented. It's ridiculously romantic, and Harry teases him a lot about it, which Louis only allows because Harry's promised to be gone Friday morning. When Louis makes him promise, Harry gives him a cheeky grin, which is how Louis knows that Liam's been talking to Harry. It's not like it matters, since he'll tell them all eventually. 

Harry had charmed the staff into giving them a mountain of extra pillows, which, just like Florida, he's been tucking around Louis every night as Louis drifts off to sleep. He wakes up Thursday morning to someone pulling them away from his left side, the one that's not bruised to all hell. 

"Give it back, Hazza," Louis whines, without opening his eyes. He reaches blindly in the direction the pillow's gone and finds a person instead. 

"Have all those girls on Twitter been right all along?" comes Nick's amused voice, and Louis cracks his eyes open to find Nick sitting on the bed next to him. 

"Mmmmm," Louis says instead of words, reaching his good arm up to tug Nick down for a kiss. It's soft and delicate, but ends with Nick lying on his side next to Louis, so that's a win. "You're early." 

Nick smiles. "Finchy might kill me, but I told Ben a friend was sick and needed looking after." 

"Not exactly sick. Just can't move." Louis laces his fingers with Nick's, which are laying gently on his bare chest. "Also, you'd better be prepared to tell Harry about this because he invited himself. He promised he'd be out tomorrow morning, but you're early." 

"Alright," Nick says. It sounds so easy the way he says it. "Thought you'd tell them before now, actually." 

Louis isn't sure how to explain it exactly. He's not hiding, it's just… they haven't even decided what they are yet, that's the whole point of this weekend. He'd wanted to work things out between them before opening it to the rest. As soon as Harry knows, the rest will too. Louis had just wanted to make sure _he_ knew before they did. "Was going to," Louis says. "After this, probably." 

He tugs Nick down to kiss him again. "Missed you." 

"Oh yeah?" 

Louis rolls his eyes. He's not playing that game right now. He's spared from answering anyway by Harry coming in. "Lou, you up yet?" he calls from the entryway. 

"Last chance to hide," Louis tells Nick. 

"And miss his face? It's going to be good. A once in a lifetime opportunity." 

The way Nick is laid out, Harry will only be able to see his back when he comes in the room. Louis, on the other hand, can see Harry's face when he appears in the doorway to the bedroom. His eyes go wide. 

"Good morning," Louis says. 

"I didn't know we were expecting company?" 

Nick grins at Louis, and squeezes his hand before rolling onto his back to look at Harry. "I came a day early as a surprise. Hiya Haz. You alright?" 

Harry does a stunning impression of a very surprised goldfish, as it turns out. Louis wishes he had his camera out for this one, because Harry's eyebrows go up even further, and his mouth drops open, bottom lip pushing out halfway between a pout and looking like he's going to say something. 

"Grimmy," Harry says once he gets control of his voice back. "You said you were meeting a friend in Spain this weekend." 

"I did," Nick says at the same time Louis says,

"A _friend_?"

"Let me deal with him first," Nick says, looking at Louis. "Unless you want to?" 

Before Louis can make a decision, Harry does. "I'm going back to the pool. One of you come find me later." He's smiling, though, so he can't be too upset. 

Louis barely waits for the bedroom door to close behind Harry. "You going to give me a proper hello now?" He tugs Nick's hand so that Nick rolls back onto his side. "I'm not going to break if you come closer, you know." 

So Nick does. He slides a leg between Louis' and covers Louis' uninjured side, and leans down to kiss him. It's less than delicate this time, and Louis hooks his leg over Nick's to keep him where he is, because this is the best he's felt since the accident. At least, until Nick tries to skim his hand up Louis' side and ends up putting just too much pressure on the bruise and cracked rib underneath, causing Louis to break away and cry out. 

"Fuck, sorry love," Nick says, moving his hand and trying to roll away. Louis doesn't let him go very far, though. 

Louis just focuses on breathing for a minute. He waves his hand over at the nightstand. "Hand me my pills? And then I suppose I should go talk to Harry." 

Nick helps him sit up, which takes considerably more effort than usual, but Louis figures that it's because Harry's well practiced by now where Nick isn't. Not yet. Nick grabs clean clothing from Louis' suitcase, which he hasn't bothered to fully unpack, and helps him dress, pouting a bit when Louis leaves him behind. 

"You two can catch up later, yeah? Let me talk to him first." He tugs on Nick's shoulder. "Kiss for luck?" 

Nick complies and when Louis turns back for one last look he sees Nick already working to neaten up Louis' clothing and put it away in drawers. Louis generally doesn't bother until he gets all the way home, since he moves around a lot when he travels. 

He finds Harry laid out in the mid-morning sun, a plate of fruit next to him. He jumps up as soon as Louis approaches, and helps him sit on one of the loungers with careful precision. It never feels good, really, but they've managed to avoid the sharp pain, at least. 

"So Grimmy's your smiley poo man," Harry says. "That emoji makes sense, I guess." 

"Were you all calling him that?" Maybe it's time he changes his phone password, or at least starts paying more attention to where he keeps it. That's a resolution that will last all of about five seconds, in reality.

"It's Niall's fault," Harry says. "He's the one who brought it up that first day after, when you dozed off on the sofa. It's not like we had a name. Easy to see why now." 

Louis doesn't say anything, just reaches for a piece of Harry's fruit. 

"When did it start?" Harry asks. 

"After Big Weekend in Glasgow. We ran into each other backstage. And I maybe hit on him a bit." 

Harry laughs. "Hard not to, really." 

"Yeah," Louis says, though it comes out a bit more dreamily than he'd intended. "Gave him my number, and he called, which was a surprise. Went over to his a few times when we were touring Europe."

"And now?" 

This is the hard part. "Don't know yet. We were supposed to talk about that this weekend. A holiday at a private villa with just the two of us. Sun and Sex for three days. Suppose that last part's out of the question now." 

Harry makes a face, and Louis makes one back. 

"I'll go pack, then." 

"Stay for lunch at least." Louis waits while Harry nods, and then says, "And maybe go get him before he unpacks my entire suitcase." 

Harry laughs, and then rises to his feet easily while Louis tries not to be too jealous. Someday he'll be able to move properly again. 

Louis is starting to doze a bit by the time they come back, Nick already changed into his swimsuit, and Louis scoots to the side of his chair enough to let Nick know where he should sit. He takes the hint pretty easily, and Louis laces their fingers together as he settles.  
 It may not be exactly the holiday he'd signed up for, but with Nick laid out at his side and Harry smiling over at them, it's not exactly a bad one.

**Author's Note:**

> Come find me on tumblr! [Glitterbootsandyellowshorts](http://glitterbootsandyellowshorts.tumblr.com/)
> 
> Come talk to me about how the next part is Nick being very sincere, but completely inept, taking care of Louis for the weekend once Harry leaves, and how Louis gets insecure because he can't move, can't sing, can't have sex, so what the hell is Nick doing with him? (it's temporary, Lou, you'll be fine.)


End file.
